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Christian was at emergency vet appointment this morning!

Christian is much brighter and happier in himself now. He is walking better around the hospital cage and I have seen him scratch himself using his back legs too. When he sits around his back legs are underneath him now instead of splayed out behind, he has lost a lot of muscle mass around his bum and he is quite thin there but as he had been in strict cage rest for the last 9 days this is hardly surprising. He goes back to the vet Thursday morning.
 
So pleased to hear Christian is getting better. It must be such a relief to you, I hope you have been able to enjoy your weekend away.
 
Lovely to hear Christian is doing well. Hope you all had a lovely weekend away.💕
 
Only just caught up on this. Poor Christian! He's been through the wars after that abscess as well. Glad to hear he's doing much better now!
 
Christian went to see Aunty Alice this morning as Aunty Auxi is away on holiday. Aunty Alice said that although Christian is walking better and his reflexes are good on his left side and not quite so good on his right he is still in pain on along his spine. He told her that as he said the piggy equivalent of "OUCH!" when she examined him. I had to syringe feed him this morning as he was at his lowest weight yet (955g) but that is probably muscle he's lost from being on cage rest for 10 days. He is still on a high dose of Metacam for another 2 weeks. Then we can see about weaning him off it. Hopefully being back with his wifelets will encourage him to eat more and get him moving around a bit more to build his muscles back up. He is still quite perky in himself and is a lot happier to be back with Velvet and Meg.
 
Betsy said:
Christian went to see Aunty Alice this morning as Aunty Auxi is away on holiday. Aunty Alice said that although Christian is walking better and his reflexes are good on his left side and not quite so good on his right he is still in pain on along his spine. He told her that as he said the piggy equivalent of "OUCH!" when she examined him. I had to syringe feed him this morning as he was at his lowest weight yet (955g) but that is probably muscle he's lost from being on cage rest for 10 days. He is still on a high dose of Metacam for another 2 weeks. Then we can see about weaning him off it. Hopefully being back with his wifelets will encourage him to eat more and get him moving around a bit more to build his muscles back up. He is still quite perky in himself and is a lot happier to be back with Velvet and Meg.
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Aw, good news, it will take a bit of time to get back to normal but such an improvement from a couple of weeks ago. He will be so much happier with his ladies to cheer him up, wishing him a full recovery x
 
Bill & Ted said:
Aw, good news, it will take a bit of time to get back to normal but such an improvement from a couple of weeks ago. He will be so much happier with his ladies to cheer him up, wishing him a full recovery x
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Thanks @Bill & Ted. I am so much happier now as a couple of weeks ago I thought I might lose him.
 
Glad that gorgeous Christian is on the mend.
Hopefully being home again and with the wives he will really perk up.
 
Well a quick update. Christian is still doing well. His weight had dropped by around 20g this morning from yesterday but I guess that's just a full/empty bladder. I am reluctant to top him up again as I would like him to eat all by himself. He was on the grass this afternoon chomping away for around 4 hours so hopefully his weight will be back up again tomorrow morning. He loves his morning and evening Metacam and almost pulls the syringe out of my hand. He was playing zoomies in the run today with Velvet and Meg but not for long so he must be happy in himself. :)
 
Merab's Slave said:
Good news - such a relief to hear after the worry he put you through
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Absolutely 2 weeks ago I thought it was long sleep time:bye: and now he's playing zoomies with his wivelets! :bronco: I just can't believe the transformation in such a short time. All he needs now is to get his cute rumblestrutting bum back. At the mo its more of a rumblenostrut bum! 😂
 
Lovely to hear Christian has recovered his zoomies! We all feared the worst for him a couple of weeks ago poor chap!
And although its not good he's in pain, feeling a bit of pain is much better than not feeling anything at all with a possible spinal injury! All sounds very positive and like he just needs to get his strength back in his back end :) these piggies go up and downhill so fast, they like to keep us worried! Healing vibes and wheeks he carries on doing so well and regains his sexy rumble bottom x
 
Betsy said:
Absolutely 2 weeks ago I thought it was long sleep time:bye: and now he's playing zoomies with his wivelets! :bronco: I just can't believe the transformation in such a short time. All he needs now is to get his cute rumblestrutting bum back. At the mo its more of a rumblenostrut bum! 😂
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Oh my goodness they do like to panic us!
So glad he’s feeling better :)
 
What great news. Glad to hear Christian is doing well. 💕
 
The vet said if I felt Christian was doing OK, I could reduce his Metacam by a bit to see how he fairs. For the last 3 doses he has had 0.65ml instead of 0.7ml and he was playing zoomies on that so I'll just see how he does in a couple of days on the new lower dose. Does anyone know if a lower dose of Metacam takes a while to kick in? or does it start working straight away?
 
Well I had to put Christian's Metacam back up to 0.7ml as he lost weight on the lower dose so I guess he was in pain. He lost weight from 980g to 962g for a couple of days and spent yesterday scoffing grass and this morning weighed in at 1001g. I also gave him some grated sweet potato and oats to help gain weight. I guess I'll need to keep him on the higher dose for a bit longer. He has been confined to the hutch today (except for weigh in this morning) as God seemed to empty his bath on my back garden today. Tomorrow he will be out on the run on my patio with the copious amounts of chickweed my front garden is growing and that is choking out my Busy Lizzies.
 
Update:
Christian saw nice Aunty Alice this morning. Alice gave him a thorough check over, tested reflexes, looked at his eyes and even gave him a nail trim and pronounced him fit and healthy. She said to keep an eye on his weight as I wean him off the Metacam. Starting tomorrow he will have 0.65ml for a week then put it down by 0.5ml weekly. Until hopefully he's on no Metacam at all. It may be he will have to have a maintenance dose for the rest of his life but we'll see how he responds over the next few weeks.
 
Betsy said:
Update:
Christian saw nice Aunty Alice this morning. Alice gave him a thorough check over, tested reflexes, looked at his eyes and even gave him a nail trim and pronounced him fit and healthy. She said to keep an eye on his weight as I wean him off the Metacam. Starting tomorrow he will have 0.65ml for a week then put it down by 0.5ml weekly. Until hopefully he's on no Metacam at all. It may be he will have to have a maintenance dose for the rest of his life but we'll see how he responds over the next few weeks.
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That's great news! We weaned Ollie off his loxicom, the vet said it was better if he did without it if he could while he's still young so he can recognise when he'd over-exerted himself and didnt damage his funny hip joints leaping about more than his joints can cope with. He still leaps about a lot, and we still have loxicom in stock in case he needs it after a long playpen run about, but he's mostly ok without it- hope Christian is the same!
 
Great news! Hopefully he will be off the pain relief soon. My word Christian you are putting mummy through the wringer. Fingers crossed you have no more problems.xx
 
Another Update:- I have now got Christian's Metacam dose down to 0.55ml morning and night. He is 34g lighter that when he was on the 0.65ml dose. Before all this started he weighed in at 1030g and this morning he weighed in at 959g. His bum seems to be almost back to how it was so I know that it's not all muscle wastage. He seems happy in himself and is certainly chomping on the grass this morning. I am just a bit concerned about him. The vet said to me to bring his Metacam dose down until he started losing weight which meant he would be in pain and just keep it at a maintenance dose where his weight is steady. She was hoping this would be between 0.2 and 0.4ml. When he was on 0.6ml his weight went from 995g down to 976g in a week now it is down to 959g. When he was on the 0.65ml dose his weight was steady. I think I may phone the vet for some advice. I just wanted to seek your opinions too.
 
If he was my piggy, I would stick with the higher dose. I was talking with Kim Maddock recently about higher Metacam doses and I made the comment about I would rather their life was slightly shorter, but pain free than worrying about any damage the higher doses might do. Kim's response was, that although that was what was originally thought, it has become apparent that keeping animals pain free, even with higher doses of pain relief, actually extends their life, as they are able to carry on doing normal, species specific things, enjoying their food and keeping active.
 
Poor Christian! I would certainly go with the higher dose of it means he is pain free.My piggy George was on quiet a high dosage to keep him pain free. Sending hugs to the lovely Christian and tell him needs to beef up again for his beautiful girls.xx
 
Poor Christian, weight loss is a worry! It might be an idea to go back to the vet to have him poked and prodded and examined on the lower dose so the vet can assess what particular movements seem painful for him, and also check it is still the same injury causing the pain and weight loss, just in case! I'm sure the vet can advise anyway, whether he needs to go back to the higher dose. Healing wheeks Christian and ask mummy for some extra oats! X
 
Just spoke to the vet. She said to put him back on 0.7ml Metacam for a few days for his weight to stabilise and then wean him back down to 0.65ml. She thinks that this will be his maintenance dose as his weight was fairly stable at this dose. She said that his life might be shortened a bit with such a high dose but at least it'll be pain free which is better than having a longer lifespan in pain. So it's back up to 0.7ml again tonight.
 
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